Morien's Follower

Mountain country, one mountain after another.

To Morien, all these mountains looked exactly the same.

"This is bad. I should've found a guide," Morien said bitterly.

Genos had posted a lost-and-found notice, while Saitama had no interest in the matter and went home on his own.

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So Morien had come alone and found this mountainous region.

To be precise, the place actually had not been difficult to find.

Silver Fang's dojo could be found with a quick online search. It was fairly easy to locate.

But now there was a problem.

Morien was lost.

All these mountains looked the same.

Maybe he should turn back and find a guide.

Morien tentatively picked up a branch from the ground and stood it upright.

He had no idea whether this world had a "Spirit World," or whether divination would work...

He temporarily converted all his energy into Spirituality, then closed his eyes.

"My destination..."

He repeated it three times, then let go.

The branch remained standing where it was. That meant the divination had failed.

"Ugh..." Morien sighed and casually kicked the branch away.

The branch spun twice through the air before landing on the ground, pointing in a certain direction.

His Spirituality suddenly stirred.

Hm?

That direction...

Was there something in that direction? It actually had a Spirituality-based connection with him.

Morien headed straight in the direction indicated by the branch.

As he walked, he casually tossed out several more branches and used his Spirituality to confirm the direction.

Before long, Morien found his target on the side of a massive mountain.

One side of that mountain was covered in fine cracks, as if a high-speed flying object had slammed into it not long ago.

Below the impact site, a barely living person lay on the ground.

Cracked skin, long white hair, and limbs shaped like scythes.

It was actually Mosquito Girl.

Mosquito Girl had been slapped out of her enhanced form by Saitama.

She had actually survived.

Morien looked behind her.

The blood sac serving as her tail had long since shriveled up.

Sure enough, the blood all over that wall had been because her blood sac had been smashed against it and burst open.

She herself had barely survived.

He had not expected her to be sent flying so far.

Morien turned to glance in the direction of the city.

He remembered that it had taken him over half an hour to walk here from where Mosquito Girl had been fought.

As Morien approached, Mosquito Girl's nose twitched faintly.

She struggled to open her eyes and looked toward Morien.

"You... it's you!"

Mosquito Girl immediately became agitated.

But the strain on her body soon forcibly calmed her down again.

She clearly remembered that scent.

It was the blood that had put her into enhanced mode after she drank only a single drop.

She struggled to reach a claw toward Morien, but all four of her limbs had been broken.

Morien understood.

"So that's how it is."

"You drank my blood and came into contact with the power of [Propagation]."

"With your abilities, it wasn't impossible for you to gain greater control over that small amount of [Propagation]."

"But you chose to leave the swarm."

Morien looked at the cracks covering Mosquito Girl's body.

They had not been caused by Saitama. If he had to trace things back to their root, it should have led to him.

"Clearly, when you chose to leave the swarm, [Propagation] left you as well," Morien said to Mosquito Girl.

"Give me some blood... please..." Mosquito Girl begged weakly.

"You want my blood?" Morien walked up to Mosquito Girl and looked down at her. "Do you want to join my Insect Faction?"

Mosquito Girl did not understand what an Insect Faction was, but that did not stop her from using all her strength to nod once.

"Heh, is that so?" Morien chuckled, extended an arm, and lightly cut open his wrist with a fingernail. "Then I suppose you count as one of my followers."

"I haven't even thought of an honorific name yet."

The scent of blood drifted out, making even Mosquito Girl's shattered limbs twitch.

Morien slowly walked over her and extended a hand.

"Don't worry. I won't kill you outright," Morien said softly.

At the entrance to the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist dojo.

Morien stepped onto the final stair and looked back. Below him stood a towering mountain peak.

The dojo was on this mountain.

Morien released his Cursed Energy enhancement and looked away.

Behind him, Mosquito Girl looked around.

She looked quite different from before.

Her body was covered in shattered-looking patterns, and her scythe-like limbs had been replaced with brand-new hands and feet.

"Normally, even people who train regularly would have a hard time climbing my mountain. Yet neither of you stopped even once along the way." An aged yet remarkably forceful voice sounded beside Morien.

"So, young man, are you here to become my disciple, or to challenge the dojo?"

Morien followed the voice and saw a white-haired old man standing not far away.

The old man stood with his hands behind his back, slightly hunched, with a thick white walrus mustache.

He was the reason Morien had come all this way.

Silver Fang, Bang.

Not once... How did he know that?

Morien repeated the old man's words in his mind.

Could it be that Bang had been beside him all along, yet he had not noticed him at all?

As expected of the third-ranked S-Class powerhouse, a true martial arts master...

Just as he was thinking that, Mystery Pryer's extraordinary powers of observation suddenly spotted something.

Morien tilted his head and looked at Bang's hands behind his back.

"Hey, old man, you keep binoculars on this mountain?"

Hearing the voice directly in his head, Bang was slightly surprised.

However, Bang neither reacted to Morien's ability nor felt embarrassed at being exposed.

He calmly nodded once.

"Indeed. Young man, your powers of observation are quite good."

"Your ability is also quite good."

"So, you still haven't answered my first question." Old Man Bang smiled warmly. "Your body is in such good condition. Are you here to become my disciple, or to challenge the dojo?"

He carefully sized Morien up from head to toe.

A fairly sturdy build, but he had some tattoos on his body. He seemed to be some kind of delinquent.

He wore an orange-red mask, and even its expression was somewhat strange—somewhere between a mocking grin and a sneer.

In short, he did not look like a good person. He looked like a punk.

But...

This was nothing.

When Bang was young, he had been far more unruly than some little street punk.

Hearing Bang repeat his earlier question, Morien raised a hand to touch his mask and answered with a grin.

"I came to become your disciple, but now that you mention it... I kind of want to challenge the dojo instead. What should I do?"

Bang smiled as well.

"No conflict, no conflict. It can be a matter of order."

"Become my disciple first. Once you've learned enough, it won't be too late to challenge the dojo."

"Then it can't be called challenging the dojo, can it? That term is far too disrespectful." Morien spread his hands. "It should be called a 'challenge.'"

"Challenge or challenging the dojo, either is fine. Come in first, then we'll talk." With his hands behind his back, Bang slowly led Morien into the dojo.

Morien gently removed his mask, smiling as he hung it against the side of his face.

Bang looked back and saw Morien's face beneath the mask, covered in fluorescent-colored patterns.

Those patterns grew upward from beneath his neck, gradually fading away below his eyes.

Those did not seem to be tattoos?

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